We have an amazing opportunity as the church to be an orientating space in a disorienting world!
Back to school is upon us, and whether you have school-aged children or not, you can’t escape the reality that days are growing slightly shorter, school supply drives are happening everywhere, and the grocery store has exploded with notebooks, gluesticks, and yep, more masks.
Students in our community have experienced a once-in-a-generation disruption this past year… a disruption that’s had social, emotional, spiritual, physical, and relational impacts. Some of those impacts have been powerful and positive: we’ve seen young people advocate for justice, grow in their flexibility and resiliency, learn to trust God in difficult times and demonstrate leadership in online classrooms around the country.
But many of the impacts have been damaging and draining: Anxiety and depression are on the rise, loneliness is increasing, church connection is waning, and our kids don’t necessarily see an adult world full of folks who are modeling strength, courage, patience, grace, and generosity of spirit.
Recently, gymnast Simone Biles stepped out of a few events at the Olympics. She gave a great explanation: she had experienced what gymnasts call ‘the twisties’… an experience of losing one’s sense of space & dimension while flying through the air in the middle of a trick. It’s a sense of total disorientation in the midst of doing something quite dangerous, which (I can only imagine) would be terrifying.
Her experience can serve as a sort of springboard (pardon the pun) for how we might understand the experiences of our student-age brothers and sisters right now. Going back to school, re-engaging friends, catching up academically, pressing forward toward developmental milestones, growing in their relationship with Jesus… might be things they’ve done a hundred times. But this fall, there’s a disorienting experience like the twisties that many students are experiencing.
We have an amazing opportunity as the church to be an orientating space in a disorienting world!
This fall, our VC Student Ministry is kicking off to a strong start. After months of praying, planning, and listening to parents and students themselves, we’re excited to move forward across all of our campuses with a Next Gen ministry that has at its heart the goal of seeing our students rightly oriented toward Christ, toward the Church, and toward their Calling in the world.
You can find all of the details/dates/times/locations here.
Let me offer a word of pastoral (and parental!) encouragement: Parents & caregivers… my goal as your senior pastor is to grow disciples who have a transformational relationship with Jesus, and a life-long, meaningful connection to the local church. Scripture shows us that it is the local church which is the mystery of God… that the local church is a place where iron will sharpen iron and where we receive teaching, correction, challenge, encouragement, and empowerment. It’s the local church that provides a life-long context for followership of Jesus. And it’s in the local church that we find community, that we learn our gifts, and that we develop our own sense of calling in the world.
This is why one of our central aims for our students is that they would not only have separate space: Student Night! that is fun, engaging, and relevant for them and their friends to grow as followers of Jesus… but that they would also be increasingly connected as members of this local church body – not only as attenders of a ‘youth group’, but as members of Vineyard Columbus who serve, who are connected multi-generationally, and who lead not ‘in the future’, but now.
So along with Student Night, our high school students will be with us in the auditorium for our weekend services (yes, we have a student section available!). Our middle school students are invited to do that as well… But we’re also offering Middle School: Sunday Morning for those 6th-8th graders who prefer to leave the main service after worship to meet together with other Middle Schoolers. We’re also continuing our First Serve opportunities as well, so if you have a student who likes to be on the move, let them volunteer and get active in one of our weekend service teams.
Research shows that kids who have meaningful connections to the local church as young people are kids who stay connected to the church when they head into the workforce or college. Our work as Christian adults is to help our students experience Vineyard Columbus as their church – not just their parent’s or caregiver’s church. I want them to find Jesus here, to learn how to worship and pray here, to hear God’s voice here, to experience the spirit here, and to figure out who they are called to be here!
I know: doing this takes work! It might mean driving your kids back and forth one more time to one more thing. It might mean taking time to encourage your student to develop their own relationship with the church. And it might take patience and perseverance as you help our students take responsibility for their own faith. But Proverbs reminds us that if we train up a child in the way they should go, when they are old, they will not depart from it. That doesn’t mean there won’t be bumps in the road (there will be) – but it does mean that, after doing our best as we raise our kids in the Lord, we can trust their futures to the faithfulness of God.
I want Vineyard Columbus to be a place where students are embraced, equipped, and empowered… so that they grow into the adults that God has called them to be: women and men who look like Jesus, and who demonstrate faith, hope, and love to a world in desperate need of it.
Again, you can find all the campus-specific details on the VC Student webpage.
God keep,
Julia